Normal Hours of Work
Normal working hours in the Philippines should not be more than 8 hours a day.
Beyond the normal 8 hours in a single workday, the employee shall be entitled to overtime pay. However, the company may adopt flexible work arrangement such as compressed workweek that allows an employee to work up to 12 hours without overtime premium.
Flexible Work Arrangements Allowed
Flexible
work arrangements refer to alternative arrangements or schedules other than
traditional or standard work hours, workdays and workweek.
● It
would be used as one of the coping mechanisms and remedial measures in times of
economic difficulties, such as substantial slump in the demand, lack of raw
materials, and national emergencies;
● The effectivity
and implementation shall be temporary in nature;
● The
employee voluntarily agrees to it;
● Prior
notice of the flexible arrangement is submitted to the Regional Office of the
DOLE (Department of Labor and Employment);
Under
the “Guidelines on the Adoption of Flexible Work Arrangements” (Dept. Advisory
No. 2, Series of 2009), employers may enter into any of the following
arrangements with its employees:
● Compressed
workweek: Under this arrangement, the normal workweek is reduced to less
than 6 days but the total number of working hours per week is still 48
hours. For this to be possible, each working day may have more than 8
hours but not more than 12 hours, without incurring overtime pay;
● Reduction
of work days: The employees may be required only to report for a few days
each week for a maximum of 6 months;
● Rotation
of workers: Here, employees are rotated or allowed to work alternately
within the workweek;
● Forced
leave: Employees may be required to go on leave for several days or weeks
using their leave credits;
● Broken-time
schedule: Under this setup, the work schedule is not continuous but the
total work hours within the week remain the same;
● Flexible holidays: Employees agree to avail of the holidays at some other days as
long as this arrangement does not result in a diminution of benefits;
Hours worked
Hours worked shall include (a) all time during which an employee is required to be on duty or to be at a prescribed workplace; and (b) all time during which an employee is suffered or permitted to work. Rest periods of short duration during working hours shall be counted as hours worked. Waiting time spent by an employee shall be considered as working time if waiting is an integral part of his work or the employee is required or engaged by the employer to wait. Attendance at lectures, meetings, training programs, and other similar activities shall not be counted as working time if all of the following conditions are met:
● Attendance is outside of the employee’s regular working hours;
● Attendance is in fact voluntary; and
● The employee does not perform any productive work during such attendance.
Meal Periods
It shall be the duty of every employer to give his employees not less than sixty (60) minutes time-off for their regular meals. It's not included in the worked hour with pay, so if they work, you should pay.
The employer may give their employees rest periods or coffee breaks during working hours in order to beef them up or to make them more productive. Unlike meal periods, rest periods running from 5 to 20 minutes is paid as hours worked. Rest period running for more that 20 minutes may or may not be paid depending on the situation.
The giving of rest period, however, is not required under the Labor Code, and is largely a management prerogative.An employee is entitled to at least 24 hours of rest period after every 6 consecutive normal work days. An employee who is required to work on his rest day shall be paid with an additional compensation as premium pay of not less than 30% of his regular wage.
Sunday is not necessarily the employee’s rest day. The employer may schedule the rest day(s) to be any other day of the week. If the employee’s rest day does not fall on Sunday, the employee shall not be entitled to additional compensation for working on Sunday.